An Unusual Birth

[0:00] Well, good morning and a warm welcome one and all as we gather in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and we gather to worship him and to exalt him.

[0:11] Week by week it's been good to hear a little bit of video testimony from different folks about the aspect of our theme. This week the theme is an unusual birth and we've got a little video and it's a well-known face that's going to appear in that video testifying.

[0:30] A little bit to the glory of God and also responding to the questions that we want to ask about an unusual birth. So let's see that.

[0:46] Hi, I'm Ruth from Bells Hill Baptist Church and I've been asked to answer the three questions relating to strange places.

[1:00] where babies have been born and how I felt when my sons were born. So here goes. Where is the strangest place that you have heard of someone giving birth?

[1:13] Strangest places that I have heard of children being born. I had to look this up because both my sons were born in a nice safe environment and hospital with plenty of doctors and nurses round about to give any help that was needed.

[1:33] I did however used to work in a doctor surgery and one of the GPs had this lady in one day who had been complaining of stomach pain and feeling unwell.

[1:44] Now this GP had seven children of his own so he should have known. But he sent her home and said it was a bit of an upset stomach only to have a phone call an hour later to say the lady had given birth to a baby in the bathroom at home.

[1:57] So that caused a few chuckles. Thankfully the mum and baby were okay. But one of the most interesting things that I read when I was looking up was a lady who during a time of floods in Mozambique where she lived, where they had to climb trees to get out of the floodwaters, went into labour and her baby was born in a tree.

[2:24] So we thankful ladies for hospitals and doctors and nurses and midwives for safe deliveries. But that was the strangest place I had heard. How would you describe the emotions you experienced when giving birth?

[2:39] So this next question was a bit difficult to answer. What emotions did you feel or how did you feel when the baby was born?

[2:53] You're feeling a whole mixture of emotions between exhausted but exhilarated, scared but excited. This wee bundle that you've been looking forward to for the last few months has finally arrived and you're just overwhelmed.

[3:12] Just a whole range of emotions. Happy, excited, just so blessed and thankful. You almost like you can't believe it. You're looking at them and you can't believe they're actually here.

[3:25] Never mind keeping checking their fingers and their toes and just staring at them as if you could do nothing else but just look at them forever. Yes, a whole mixture of emotions, mostly blessed, thankful and just so thankful to God that they're there and that they're safe.

[3:43] And this precious wee miracle that the baby is. What does the gift of Jesus, God incarnate, mean to you?

[3:57] The third question, thinking about having a child and what does this make us think about the Lord Jesus? And really, in all honesty, you think the Lord Jesus is the miracle of all miracles.

[4:14] If every child that's born is a miracle, that I believe they are, Jesus is the miracle of all miracles. The promise, the hope for our future because without him there is no hope, there is no future.

[4:30] The Lord Jesus is the miracle of all miracles.

[5:00] The miracle of all miracles.

[5:30] If you have your Bible, I'm going to encourage you to turn to John's Gospel and to the first chapter of John's Gospel. And we're going to read the opening 14 verses.

[5:43] And if you want, also have your finger in the first letter of John as well, 1 John. But I'm going to read the opening four verses. But John chapter 1, 1 through 14.

[5:57] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

[6:12] All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

[6:30] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God. His name was John.

[6:41] He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

[6:54] The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him.

[7:07] He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

[7:37] And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory, as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

[8:00] And I want to read just the opening four verses of the first letter of John. 1 John chapter 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.

[8:29] The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us.

[8:50] That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

[9:02] And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things, so that our joy may be complete.

[9:19] Amen. And we pray that God would speak to us as we look at his word this morning. Well, as part of our Advent celebrations, we're thinking this morning about a very unusual birth.

[9:36] And you know, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was a very unusual birth, and we're thinking this morning about a very unusual birth.

[10:13] Irishman, who, of course, you know, donned the academic halls, and a great writer. And the ability to write in so many different genres, you know, many of us as children, you know, remember, and our own children still enjoy the Narnia series that C.S. Lewis wrote.

[10:34] But you can also read so many of the other things that he has written. And C.S. Lewis describing John 1 verse 14, as only an Irishman could say it, called it the grand miracle.

[10:50] The grand miracle. John 1 verse 14. You know, I have always, as I mentioned, described the birth experience.

[11:25] As witnessing a miracle. I've been blessed to have three children. And I now have four grandchildren.

[11:37] And in the three children, I was able to be present at the birth. I was able to be there, offering the support I could. I was able to, you know, draw alongside Linda in all of that experience.

[11:54] And I was able, very early on, to hold my children in my arms. And I was saying the other day, my daughter turned 36.

[12:07] She's my eldest. My daughter turned 36 the other day. And we were round at her house for an afternoon tea. And I was recalling how on the day on which she was born, in the Queen Mother's Hospital in Glasgow.

[12:25] I was there. And it had been a long day, a full day. And at the end of the day, Linda was tired. And she was going to have a lie down. And I was going to go and try and get something to eat and come back.

[12:37] So round about tea time, I'd been after a long, full day. And I decided to walk down to the Stirling Castle, just down from the Queen Mother's, to go in and get something to eat. And I did something, you know, quite remarkable.

[12:50] I walked into the Stirling Castle, and life was going on, just as it always does. All these people just standing there, and, you know, some drinking, some eating, just all, you know, standing there.

[13:00] And I thought, I've just become a father. And, like, the world hasn't noticed. Right? And so I boldly announced to the whole, you know, restaurant, you know, pub restaurant that it is, you know, Hey, I've just become a dad.

[13:20] Right? And it was kind of, you know, a mixture of shock and confusion. As I made my announcement, as if I had just invented parenthood.

[13:31] Because that's how it felt. That's how it felt. That's how it felt. I was witnessing the most incredible miracle. I'd just witnessed the most incredible miracle.

[13:42] And, of course, now I had all the responsibilities that that little miracle was going to bring. But the reality is, I was so overcome by the experience.

[13:54] And none of it, none of it, none of it even begins to compare with the miracle that was witnessed that very first Christmas.

[14:09] none of it even begins to draw close to what we're thinking about when we think about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ John opens his gospel in prologue thereby saying in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the word that he's referring to logos there of course is our Lord Jesus Christ and he's actually saying that he has always been in fact he's saying there's never been a time when he has not been so it's God himself we talk about God incarnate Mark opens his gospel by saying the beginning of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ you know when we get to 1 John chapter 1 and John the by this time the aged apostle the same author of John's gospel it says that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes that we've looked upon that we've touched with our hands concerning the word of life and what they're doing is they're describing our Lord Jesus Christ but here's the thing about our Lord Jesus Christ he has got an unbeginning beginning and he has an unending end an unbeginning beginning and an unending end you know through the marvelous gift that God gives to his creation of procreation you know we are blessed to have children but when our children sing away in a manger no crib for a bed we're singing about the one who has an unbeginning beginning we're singing about the one who has an unending end you know John in his little letter was writing against those who were docetists right that is that they wanted to think that you know God was in Jesus but he wasn't fully human but no

[16:31] God was in Christ fully human and fully God an unbeginning beginning an unending end God came look at verse 11 of John chapter 1 he came to his own for God so loved the world that he gave and when you and I in the midst of Advent think about the child in the manger infant of Mary our hearts should explode when we think that here is the Lord of all creation here is the one who speaks a word and things appear here is a one who holds everything together here is the one who is sovereign over life and death here is the one who holds everything in his hands and here is the one who who unusually is born in the fragility of human flesh because his heart is gentle and lowly towards us and he longs to seek and to save his own who are lost the God of all glory in Bethlehem's manger in Bethlehem's manger in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made that's why we talk about an unusual birth that's why he had to be born of a virgin that's why it had to be entirely

[19:44] God at work because he needed to be born in human flesh and be perfectly human but he need to be born the son of God and be perfectly holy and be perfectly holy I was saying last week in our service at Calderwood that Isaiah 9 and verse 6 where our first Sunday of Advent was gives us that humanity and divinity for to us a child is born we're familiar with that but to us a son is given here is Jesus Christ the Lord of all glory the one who has an unbeginning beginning and an unending end and in verse 14 of John's Gospel which is our key verse today it says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us

[20:59] Eugene Peterson in his translation the message says the word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood the word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood the word that is used in John 1 verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us is the word tabernacle the word became flesh and tabernacled among us you and I would understand that better today by simply saying that God has pitched his tent among us God has pitched his tent among us you know my friends this is marvelous how many times do we read throughout the whole of the revelation of scripture fear not for I will be with you

[22:10] I was sitting last night studying the book of Joshua and I was amazed as I was just looking through the early part of the book of Joshua that part that you and I are so familiar with be bold and be strong you know he was going to need boldness and strength Joshua was called to be at the front of a battle but his boldness and his strength lay in the promise that he was given so many times the Lord your God is with you God in human flesh pitches his tent among us perfectly God and perfectly man he is undefiled he is not corrupted in any way

[23:26] God in all his glory as we've been looking at the new city catechism Alan Sterling one of our preaching team was talking about how God in Christ is 200% he's not a mixture of kind of you know 50% and 50% he's 200% 100% God 100% man God incarnate and he pitches his tent among us you know my friend think about that first Christmas for long the people of Israel had heard I will be with you but unbelieving and stubborn and rebellious there were those who were longing for the day when God would send his Messiah and they would know God with them and you and I love to sing

[24:35] Emmanuel God with us and this morning as we think about this unusual birth the one who's got an unbeginning beginning it's an unusual birth because he's from all eternity there has never been a time when he has not been and there will never be a time when he is not now that's that's a very unusual birth right you know that's not true of you and I you and I will live for eternity because of this unusual birth you see the incarnation makes salvation possible you know we often look to Calvary's cross and we think our salvation is in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is but if he had not come to us as God incarnate if he had not lived among us if he had not been able to empathize with our weaknesses if he had not proven himself to be sinless amongst the sinful people then he could not be the perfect sacrifice but all of these things he has done what an unusual birth this is the one who's got an unbeginning beginning and an unending end is as a babe in Bethlehem's manger he's born of the virgin we're not even getting into that aspect of the unusual birth today right but he's born of the virgin because he has to be in order to fulfill but God incarnate

[26:08] God incarnate makes all of it possible for man and woman to be reconciled to God because this is all the work of God's grace it is full of grace and it is absolute truth God is at work God is making it possible God has come to his own he has pitched his tent among us and John the aged apostle wanting to testify to all of this writes in one John he says we have heard him we have seen him with our eyes this is apostolic testimony you know we have we have witnessed all that he has done we have we have put our arms around him this is the one that has been made manifest this is the one that has been revealed this is the one that is on display and we can testify and proclaim to you that this one is eternal life he is eternal life in himself and those who belong to him will be eternally with him what a wonder this birth in

[28:06] Bethlehem's manger is it is none other than God himself it is none other than eternal life himself and what John says is what we have seen and what we have heard we proclaim to you why that you might have fellowship with us and so he's speaking as an apostle that you might be brothers and sisters with us and why as we are in fellowship with the father and with the son so what John is saying the reason I want you to understand that Jesus Christ the babe in Bethlehem's manger the one who then in his life and death and the resurrection declares eternal life and eternal life was declared right from the very beginning this one this one I proclaim to you because he has made it possible for us to be in a living loving relationship with God the father and what we have got we want you to have we want you to have that with us and here's what he says he says and if you have that and if you experience that our joy will be complete our joy will be overflowing now my friends

[29:31] I love Christmas I'm a kid in a sweetie shop Christmas time right I love it you know I have great fun I've got four grandchildren and I just love Christmas morning I'm there right I'm ripping off the you know the wrappings I'm setting up the toys I'm on my knees you know I've got a dodgy hip but you know and Linda's forever saying to me you're going to get off that ground otherwise you're going to suffer and I'm just suffering because I just love every moment of it but that joy that joy doesn't even begin to compare with this joy God in Christ why because the heart of God is that is that in Christ Jesus you and

[30:33] I could be reconciled to God that you and I could live out the fullness of eternal life in Christ that you and I could overflow with joy unspeakable and full of glory joy you know at some point over this next few weeks we will sing joy to the world we will question is how will we sing it you know because I mean let's be honest sometimes joy to the world the Lord has come let earth receive its joy to the world joy to the world is it not the experience of every born again son and daughter joy sins are forgiven guilt is removed

[31:53] I'm restored to God the father I know the prince of peace joy you see the whole message of the birth of Jesus Christ is a declaration a proclamation of the salvation of God you know the angelic host what was their message do not fear I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people you know sometimes I wonder why we hesitate to speak about this we get all wrapped up in ourselves and what people might think who gives us stuff what they think about us right what really matters is what they think about God and God has come in Christ the one who's got an unbeginning beginning and an unending end to give eternal life to all who by repentance and faith will put their trust in him and they'll be forgiven and they'll be restored and they'll be filled by the spirit of

[33:29] God because the one who tabernacled among us the one who pitched his tent among us he was the one who also said I tell you what I'm going to do I'm going to live I'm going to die I'm going to rise from the dead I'm going to ascend into heaven and there at the right hand of the father I'm going to intercede for you but I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do I'm going to pour my holy spirit into your lives that God might dwell in you and by the power of God in you you might live for the glory of God magnify his name and you might overflow with joy little wonder we love Christmas isn't it right it's little wonder that we sit there and think you know let me tell you about a very unusual birth you know and what a great little line that would be for evangelism wouldn't it you know we were sharing some accounts and stories we've got about unusual births I don't know if you've ever heard about unusual births you know one of my friends he knows about somebody who gave birth to somebody in the back of a Volkswagen barrel and you know I know about somebody I was reading about somebody who gave birth up a tree but let me tell you about the most unusual birth ever that the God of all creation the God who made you the

[34:45] God who loves you the God who longed to reconcile you to himself made it possible with the most unusual birth ever because he came in human flesh God incarnate to the announcement of the angels I give you good news of great joy that will be for all the people and he came because he wanted you to know that you can live not just for the moment but for all eternity he wanted you to know the peace of Christ reigning in your heart he wanted you to know the power of God working in your life and he wanted you to know the hope of glory which belongs to all who are in Christ Jesus you know my friend are you living this morning as somebody who's got the peace of Christ reigning in their heart is the power of God leading you ever increasingly day by day to glorify God in your life are you overflowing with the hope of glory this was a very unusual birth but I am so thankful to God for it so thankful to God and I pray that this advent you and I might follow in the footsteps of the apostle

[36:12] John and speak of what we have seen and heard and know and share that with others that their joy might be complete so a little challenge as we draw our time together to a close next Sunday we should have 50 people don't think we've ever quite had 50 we've been close but not quite that's good that means there's room for more maybe this week will be the week in which we we'll share our story of the good news of great joy and invite someone else to come to come and to hear the glorious truth of Jesus Christ our Lord let's pray our gracious father we thank you for this advent season we thank you for the birth of our Lord

[37:21] Jesus Christ we thank you for the grand miracle that makes it possible for us to be reconciled to yourselves and we pray that you would stir our hearts stir our hearts to overflowing with the good news of great joy that is ours in Christ and that we would share what we know of you with others that not only would our joy be complete but theirs would be complete and that the angels in glory would rejoice over the sinners who would come to repentance and faith father would you help us to be in step with your spirit this week to be open to the opportunities that you have for us and to magnify and glorify your name in Jesus name amen of you and again whoessä and and and